“Glad to know that you’ve got things all figured out,” Dr. Haggard said, looking over at Diane. “How are you feeling these days?”
“Great. Sully made us an offer that we can’t refuse,” she said with a grateful smile. “Plus, we’re finished making our family. We have two very healthy boys.”
Diane had been a blessing to Sully all the way around. Working in his office had been hard at times. In work, he was very demanding and extremely passionate about pushing the DLC’s agenda, but outside of the office he was a great guy. He had visited their home, eaten dinner with them on more occasions than she could count and occasionally slept on her couch. He was always fair and balanced as a boss and dependable and loyal as a friend. So, when he came to her and told her in a private meeting that he was leaving his position, she was horrified. No boss could be better. Plus, the DLC leadership normally brought in their own team, which meant she could very well be out of a job.
But Sully had countered with a great job opportunity. $500,000 for nine months of work – carrying his child. True she was married, but he went to her husband, George, and talked it over with him. No sex. No relationship. Just a friend that he could trust to carry his most precious of investments.
Of course, they accepted the offer but were still shocked by it. Sullivan Orrin was an Orrin from the Orrin family, and he wanted a black family to carry his child. It only made more sense when he came to them a little over a month ago and explained that they would be carrying a little half-black baby. It totally changed their view of Sully forever, and put them on a course to make him a daddy.
Now he was putting them up in a $2.5 million home in Norfolk for nine months to make sure that his babies had the best comfort possible, far from the drama and hustle and bustle of D.C., hidden in the quiet tranquility of a lavish, golf course community off the beach.
Yep, she was doing just fine.
***
When all the visitors had gone and the apartment was cleaned, there was only a peaceful silence in the house. Pouring a glass of red wine, Charlie passed it to Alex, who laid on his side of the bed and, then poured her own. Words really couldn’t express how good it felt to Charlie to look over across the vastness of their California king-sized bed and see her man. She pulled the covers over her and sat back on her pillows with her wine glass in hand and released an exhaled breath of pure ecstasy.
“Welcome home,” she said, leaning over to kiss Alex’s cheek.
“Thanks,” he said, taking a sip, “but I hope you don’t think that a peck on the cheek is going to cut it.”
Charlie giggled. “Do you think that you’re up to that yet?”
“Baby, chica, sweety pie, I have been in the hospital for over a freaking month and a half. You wouldn’t once sneak me some hospital kitty, and I can’t cuff it with my mom sitting across the room. You’re damned right I’m ready.”
Charlie laughed aloud. “Okay,” she said, wiping her mouth. “Well…” she sat down her glass on the nightstand. “How are we going to do this?”
She looked into his warm brown eyes and felt her heart melt. Leaning in again to his full, pink lips, she kissed them slowly, arousing heat between them with every slow evolution.
Alex moaned and then sucked his lips as he pulled away from her to set down his glass. “God, I have missed you, Charlie.” He rested a large hand on the small of her back. “Every part of you. Your eyes, your lips, your voice, your smell, your touch…” He groaned. “I could go on and on for days, but I think I’d rather have you ride me.”
Charlie raised a brow. “I could do that.” She reached over across him to open the nightstand but Alex caught her hand. “What’s the use of putting one of those on?”
“You know how I feel about that,” she said with a whine in her voice.
Alex ran a gentle hand down her arm that made goose bumps form. “But you know how I feel about you.” He rose up and kissed her again, pulling her down into his embrace.
She fell gracefully into the softness of his gray NYFD t-shirt and the smell of his Ralph Lauren cologne. Pushing the drawer closed, she straddled him. “I’m trusting you, Alex, with our lives.”
Alex bit his lip. “Finally…all it took was me nearly getting killed.”
Charlie paused when he said it, paused because it was true. They had never made love without protection before. Part of her knew that it was because Sully wasn’t the only one with trust issues, but she hid hers with the rhetoric of Sophie’s Choice. In truth, she just didn’t want to be another baby’s momma tied down to a kid with a man who ran off with cold feet and landed in another woman’s warm bed.
Somehow, Alex knew that Charlie had bigger issues with not using a condom, but had managed to not let that deter him from being with her, even though he loathed the restriction and feel of a condom. During their relationship, he had continuously reminded himself to be thankful that he hadn’t experienced an unwanted pregnancy, and when the time actually came to have a child, he would be more than ready, he’d be eager.
Taking her face in his hands, he pulled her to him again and kissed her, this time slow and deep enough to make her submit completely. The smell of her hair and soft skin made his desire come to a fever pitch.
“Tonight, we make love as we were meant to,” he said, pulling off her chemise.
99
The Contingency Plan
Chapter 6
Eleven Years Later
Norfolk, Virginia
If Sully kicked his foot on one more little football cleats then he was certain that he would go mad. Bending down to pick up the shoe off the staircase, he took a deep breath and tried to compose himself. “Benny, what did I tell you about leaving your football gear all over the place? What are you trying to do, kill me?”
A bushel of blondish brown locks peeped over the staircase on the third floor. “Sorry, Dad!” the squeaky little voice called out before it disappeared again.
“Sorry isn’t good enough, mister. Get down here and pick up your stuff.” Coughing, Sully covered his mouth with his hand and turned and sat down on the carpeted staircase. There was no way that he was going to make it upstairs right now. The flu was killing him. Aches and pain radiated through his body, and he felt like he was blazing with fire.
“Here I come,” Benny said.
“I’m going to my room. Don’t leave this house until it’s clean. That goes for both of you,” Sully called out again before he pulled himself up.
“Why do I have to clean up Benny’s mess?” his daughter Charlize asked from the second floor. Her long, auburn, braided pigtails flopped over the alabaster staircase and hung nearly a foot over the rail.
“Because some of this mess,” Sully said, picking up her paintbrush, “is yours.” He couldn’t dare be as hard on his little girl as he was on his son. Charlie, as he affectionately called her, was his princess, where Benny or Benjamin was his pride and joy. Both had a special place in his heart, but as twins most days they just wore him out.
Sully coughed again. “Charlie, do me a favor will you? Go check the mail for Daddy. I’ve gotta crash.” Stepping over more toys at the bottom of the staircase, he made his way through his lavish but very “lived in” home to his master bedroom where he threw himself on the bed, fully clothed in jeans and a red and white flannel, kicked off his shoes and turned on the television.
How he loved Saturday evenings. They were filled with the peaceful bliss of tacos, popcorn, lazy conversations that avoided anything constructive and unstructured family time that usually involved him not being involved. Football practice for the week was over for Benny; Charlie was in her room being Picasso and listening to Puccini, and he was free to lie in bed and watch re-runs of football and write on his nearly completely undiscovered blog. He had like two readers, one of which was him and the other a complete lunatic from Danville.
The fireplace across from him crackled with new wood and light snow began to fall outside of his windows on their manicured lawn. It s
omehow added to his lazy day. Coughing into a decorative pillow, he nestled down into the comfort of his bed and began to drift off.
Just as the rhythm of his chest became constant, and he began to drift off into a peaceful sleep, he suddenly heard a loud shriek from Charlie. His head popped up quickly, hands planted into the mattress, drool coming from his mouth. “I’m up. What’s wrong?” he asked, alarmed. Quickly, he jumped out of bed, nearly falling over his own boots to meet her at his open door.
His daughter came barreling through the door, throwing her coat on his floor to reveal denim overalls and a pink turtleneck. Her cheeks were red and rosy from the cold chill of the weather and excitement of the correspondence. “Daddy! Read this!” she said, eyes bright with excitement.
“Read what?” he asked, trying to calm his heart. “Don’t ever scream like that unless something is wrong. You nearly gave me a heart attack.” And she did. He was an older man now, unable to handle girlish screams anymore.
“Sorry, Daddy, but just read it,” she said, jumping up and down.
Taking the letter, he squinted as he looked at the seal of the White House stamped on top. “Get my glasses, baby,” he said, pulling the letter closer to his face. It was addressed to the Charlize Orrin. His Charlie.
She gave him his glasses quickly, and they both sat on the end of his bed in front of the fireplace and the ignored football game while Sully read the letter quietly. When he was done, a bright smile crossed his face.
“This is amazing, sweetheart,” he said, shaking his head in amazement.
“I know. I was picked. It said that there were 100,000 entries and they picked me.” She was still out of breath from her sprint back from the mailbox and all the excitement. “They want us to come to the White House! I get to meet the president’s children, Robin and Victory.”
“I know,” Sully said, rubbing her back. “You are the best, Charlie. I knew that they would pick you.” He said so in a matter-of-fact tone that embodied his paternal pride.
Charlize was glowing, radiating with youthful bliss that could only be appreciated, admired but not captured. And her father basked in her beauty. In ten years, she had completely engulfed him. He was nothing without her and her brother. His existence had become all about his twins, his light in the darkness of this world. And he knew that he had never known true happiness before being a parent.
However, he was blessed beyond the normal standards. His children reciprocated his affection. They loved their father, hung on to his every word and adored him almost as much as he adored them. They were a team, and played their respective roles with great pride.
“I’ve got to call your uncles and cousins about this. They are going to be thrilled.”
“Oh, while we are in D.C., can we go and see Uncle Will?” she asked, clasping her little hands together.
“Do you think he’d let us out of the city without seeing him?” Sully bent and kissed the top of her head, which smelled like strawberries. “Now, off with you. Go and tell your brother. Stop in my office and make a copy of the letter to show your friends, but leave the original on my desk.”
He watched her run out of the room and down the corridor before he laid his head back on the bed. Looking up at the ceiling, he smiled with pride but at the same time, remembered his promise to Charlie.
Eleven years ago they agreed to keep this entire arrangement under wraps, but he was no fool. There was going to be loads of press behind this story. They were going to interview the shit out of the entire family and eventually some reporter would ask where Mom was. Then he’d have to share with not only the world but also his kids that while he did go through with the In Vitro process, as he had told them, he did know who the donor was, which he had not shared.
It had been hard enough to try to explain to them how they had arrived in this world, but he had left out the part about knowing the mother for their own good. Charlie had been right about her concerns.
The children were far brighter than he ever remembered being at their age. They often asked about the process of IVF and who had given their “eggs” away. But Sully had felt that telling them that he didn’t know only protected them from feeling abandoned by their mother.
Now, he’d have to face the entire truth, and more than likely, he’d not be alone in the inquisition. Reporters were smart. People had talked in the past about his decision to have multiracial children, and they’d also talked about his short relationship with Charlie. It wouldn’t take long to put two and two together.
***
It was eight at night by the time that Charlie got home from work. Pulling into the garage of their suburban white, two-story colonial home with the classic red door and the picket fence in Somerset, New Jersey, she turned off the car and put her head on the steering wheel. She knew that she was in for it - two hours late for dinner and two hours late for the discussion that she and Alex were supposed to be having tonight spelled trouble for her.
They were having issues. He was completely unhappy with her, and she wasn’t too thrilled with him either. Still, he tried, and so did she. He had called her earlier in the day and asked her to sit down and talk over a quiet dinner. He had bought the kids pizza and put them to bed early but he had fixed Charlie a separate, quiet dinner with wine and wanted to discuss rebooting their marriage.
When she hung up the phone with him earlier that day, she had one intention – to meet him at six for dinner - but then they had a major client fly in, and she was asked to speak at the press conference, and then the day went to shit. She called and missed Alex on his cell, and then she had her assistant, Frank, call and leave more messages, but the end result was the same.
Alex was pissed at Charlie.
Well, what was new in the world?
Getting out of her pewter Mercedes Benz with her bags hanging off both shoulders and her leather coat draped over her arm, she slowly drudged up the stairs and entered into the kitchen of their house.
Carefully, she closed the door behind her and hit the alarm, trying not to make a noise.
The lights were dim, and the dishes had all been washed and put away. She kicked off her shoes and looked around, but there was no sign of Alex.
The television on the counter in the kitchen played CNN, the larger one in the sitting room played MSNBC. The den was quiet and empty. Everything was in its place and silent – a sure sign that he was pissed.
Normally, when everything was good between them homework, toys, shoes and random mess was everywhere. Alex only cleaned up when he was angry; it helped him think. And based upon the look of the house tonight, he was furious.
“You finally made it home,” Alex said, rounding the corner with a pint of mint chocolate ice cream in his hands.
Charlie jumped. “Jeesh, you scared me.” Holding her hand to her chest, she shook her head.
“A bit dramatic for so late in the evening aren’t you?” he said curtly as he walked passed and went to the stainless steel refrigerator to put away his late evening snack.
“I could say the same for you,” she said, looking at the ice cream. He only ate it when he was really upset too. Taking a deep breath, she went over to the kitchen island and sat down. “Sorry that I’m late. Did you get my messages?” She tried to sound upbeat even though she was beat down.
“Yep.” He slightly slammed the refrigerator, then turned to her and took the spoon out of his mouth. “You know how I feel about you having Frank call me.”
“Please don’t start with that homophobic crap,” she said offended.
“I’ve asked you before not to have someone else call me. You call me; I’m your husband.” His voice slightly rose.
“Why don’t we get to what this is really about?” Her nostrils flared. “You want a housewife, someone who makes less than you, works less than you, and is here every time you decide to grace us with your presence.” Before she said it, she knew that it was too much. But it had been stewing in her mind all day long, ever since she real
ized she would be late for dinner.
“You know before I wasn’t man enough to say it, but yes, Charlie, that’s what I want.” He shook his head. “But what I want more than that is for you to treat us like a freaking family instead of an appointment that you have to make.” He was ready for her tonight, already fuming under the collar and ready to take it all out on the person who deserved it most.
“I love my family,” she said, putting her hands to her chest as if the action made it that much more sincere.
“Really?” His big brown eyes bucked. “Then why aren’t you ever here?”
“You know what I was up against when I took this position, and we weren’t even married yet. Being the president of Sophie’s Choice is no nine to five job.”
Alex threw up his hands. “Save me your high level talking points, because I’ve had it up to here with hearing about Sophie’s Fucking Choice. What about the Mendoza family, huh? What about your two children upstairs? Are you going to try to give them that explanation for why you are never home? Mommy’s job is too important to just leave isn’t good enough for little kids. Trust me, I’ve tried to explain that to them, and they are just as confused and pissed as I am.”
Now Charlie was really upset with him. How dare he? She slammed her hand down on the table. “Everything that I do, I do for you and those kids. I love my family, and I prove it by working my ass to the bone.”
“You don’t do this for us,” he smirked. “You do it for you, because you like being Mrs. Important. It feeds into that woman’s lib bull shit that you preach across the city.”
“It’s okay for me to be Mrs. Important when it benefits you for $10,000 hair plugs or a new Range Rover for you to gallivant around Manhattan in, but that’s where it stops right? Do you really think that we could afford the mortgage on this house, the payments on these damned cars, the kids’ private school tuition on just one income?” she asked, gritting her teeth.
“Oh, just go on and say it, Charlie. You’d feel a hell of a lot better. The real question is, could we afford it on my income? Because I’m not bringing in a quarter of a million dollars.”
The Contingency Plan (The Lonely Heart Series) Page 8
